Falling to Pieces
by SunSingularity
Summary: Greg and Morgan are sent out to a case in a remote location when disaster strikes. Will the rest of the team realize they're in trouble in time to save them both? Will be Morganders!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** **So this is my** _ **second**_ **CSI fic. My first one was "Make the Sparks Fly" and it was a full story, with a case to solve and everything. This story doesn't involve a case** _ **exactly**_ **, so if you're into that part of everything, this fic may disappoint you. Also, this a Greg & Morgan centered fic, so keep that in mind. This is set sometime during season 15…**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I have no money for you to take, so…**

Chapter 1

"Greg and Morgan!" D.B. shouted down the hallway. Greg was in the break room, finishing a cup of his Blue Hawaiian coffee. Morgan was putting her purse in her locker. Both jumped at the shout of D.B.'s voice. Both of them made their way to his office, meeting in the hallway on the way there. Greg still had his coffee in his hands.

"What do you think this is about?" Morgan asked Greg.

"It could be anything. Are you caught up with all your cases?"

"Yes, are you?"

"Yeah…" Greg trailed off. They stopped in the doorway of D.B.'s office. He was spraying his mushrooms with water, so Greg coughed to get his attention.

"Ah, there you are. The file on my desk is your next case." He said, glancing at the two of them and then pointing at the file. They walked in and Morgan picked the file up, flipping through it while Greg downed the rest of his coffee in a gulp.

"Red Rock Canyon? That's out in the middle of nowhere!" Morgan exclaimed.

"Maybe so, but Rangers found a crime scene at a camp site in a pretty remote area and I need you two to go out there to process it. You're the only ones caught up with everything else and this looks like it's going to take some time. Make sure you take the newer Denali, though, those roads might be a little rough."

"Sure thing." Greg said. They left his office and gathered their kits and Morgan grabbed a light jacket from her locker. Greg grabbed the keys to the newest crime lab vehicle and they walked out to the garage together.

"Who's driving?" Greg asked, unlocking the car. Morgan was looking up directions on her phone to transfer to the vehicle's navigation system. She looked uncertain.

"Could you drive? Those winding canyon roads make me nervous, especially at night."

Greg opened the driver's side door. "I never thought I'd see the day when Morgan Brody didn't argue about who gets to drive. Has Hell frozen over?"

"Yeah, yeah…" She said, laughing as she climbed in.

~XXXXX~

"According to the GPS, it's going to take us forty-five minutes to get there." Morgan said, putting the directions from her phone into the car's system and buckling her seatbelt.

"So, what are we going to do to entertain ourselves in the meantime?" Greg asked, pulling out of the garage and merging onto the main highway out of Vegas and west to the canyon.

"Good question. Oh! We can sing songs from the radio!" She said enthusiastically, flipping through the stations until she found one she liked.

"Singing?" Greg asked doubtfully as a song unfamiliar to him played.

"Why not? I'm pretty good at it. In fact, I was in acapella choir in high school _and_ college. I'm a strong alto. What about you?"

Greg shrugged. "I usually do air drums."

Morgan laughed. "I bet you're better than you think you are. You have a good speaking voice, so why not a great singing voice?"

Greg made a face. "I appreciate the encouragement. I'll do my best, but I can't guarantee anything. I wasn't in choir at any point in my life and my high school years were spent playing chess and skipping grade levels."

"Wow, skipping grade levels? Way to make a girl feel like an underachiever." Morgan said, folding her arms across her chest and acting insulted.

"Yeah… uh, I was a huge nerd."

"Was? As in… _past tense?_ "

"Hey, I'm not singing if you're going to taunt me the whole time about my incredible intelligence." Greg fake pouted at her and she grinned.

"No more taunting, I promise. Cross my heart." She put her hand over her heart.

"Okay, then I suppose we can sing." Greg relented.

She turned the radio up and they waited for a song they both liked before belting out the tunes as loud as they could. Greg wondered how many people driving by stared at them and laughed. He was surprised by how good Morgan really was. Her voice was beautiful and he stopped singing after a while, just so he could listen to her without his own voice getting in the way. Eventually, she noticed.

"You aren't singing." She said, giving him a look and turning down the radio.

"You're so good, I didn't want to ruin it with my voice thrown in there." Greg admitted.

Morgan sighed. "How long have I been singing by myself?"

"For the last three songs." Greg admitted with a sheepish grin.

"Oh, well now you have to sing the next three without me so I can judge the quality of _your_ voice without mine thrown in." Morgan said. They argued about whether or not this was fair for about five minutes before Greg gave in and decided to sing the songs.

"Fine, I'm singing." He waited for the next song on the radio. He sang along with the lyrics while Morgan listened intently. It made him less nervous to have the music in the background and he knew he wouldn't be able to do it without it.

When he finished singing three songs, he went silent, waiting for Morgan's judgement on his voice. She was smiling, so he knew it couldn't have been that bad.

"You remind me of that guy, Hozier." She said finally.

"Really? The 'Take Me to Church' song?"

"Yes. Your voice is very similar to his. If you spent time working on it, you could be very good. We could do karaoke night!" She said excitedly, thinking of the time she, Sara and Finn did it… before the drama started, of course. Maybe this time they could invite Nick and Greg along. She knew that it would be fun.

"I'd have to be drunk before doing karaoke and I'm betting Nick would agree with me." Greg said.

"Even better." Morgan agreed. They sang more songs together to pass the time, but when the radio started repeating songs they'd already heard, they stopped. The GPS was warning them that they were getting close to the canyon.

"So, it says that the campsite is up on a scenic trail on one of the mountains. I'll call the rangers to make sure they're already there." Morgan said.

She dialed the number and talked to them while Greg stopped at park entrance and showed his badge to the attendant. They were waved through the entrance and continued up the road until they got to a point where it divided into several directions. Greg followed the vehicle's navigational instructions and went to the left toward road seven as Morgan hung up her phone and slipped it back into her pocket.

"The rangers are at the scene, it's been taped off. David is already there, so everyone's waiting on us." Morgan said.

"Great."

"He warned me that it's difficult to get to, so be careful." Morgan said.

"Aren't I always?"

~XXXXX~

Greg had been driving through the narrowing, winding roads for almost twenty minutes. The GPS told them that they were going the right way, so he continued on that path, but he had no real way of knowing if that was true. Trees hugged the sides of the road in some areas, only to disappear and reveal a steep drop off into darkness in others. Greg had driven these roads only once before, but that was in the day time. He turned on the bright lights to make the road easier to see.

"I bet Dave had a hard time getting the coroner van up these roads. That thing isn't exactly agile." Morgan said, staring out the window at the stars. You could see so much more of them this far out, without the lights of the Vegas strip to blind you to everything else. It was amazing how much different everything looked away from the city.

"Yeah…" Greg said, slowing down to make a sharp turn. Morgan thought she heard a distant rumble come from somewhere above or around them.

"Did you hear that? Was that thunder?"

"Just what we need, a thunderstorm in the middle of nowhere at an outdoor crime scene." Greg said. Morgan listened for it again, but didn't hear anything. She chalked it up to her imagination and watched the road.

"Do deer come up here?" She wondered, looking for a sign.

"I haven't been up here enough times to know. Did you see one?"

"No, I was just wondering. This crime scene is farther away than I thought it would be." She said. After a couple of minutes of silence, she heard the rumbling again. She pulled out her phone to check the weather, but she couldn't get a signal. Irritated, she put it back into her pocket. The GPS on the navigation system in the Denali went out at the same time.

"Location not found!" The woman's voice on the GPS exclaimed.

"Of course it isn't. These things never work when you _really need them._ " Greg said, tapping at the screen in frustration. Morgan heard more rumbling and looked out the window. She couldn't see any clouds blocking the moon or the stars. Where was that sound coming from? She didn't want to say anything else about it and sound like she was worrying too much, but the rumbling got louder and louder. She switched off the radio to listen.

"What…?" Greg started to say, when she shushed him.

"You hear that?" She asked. He nodded, staring at the road ahead of him. He didn't want to take his eyes off of it to look around, but he could hear something. It didn't sound like thunder, though.

POP!

Morgan yelped and sat abruptly back in her seat. A rock bounced off the windshield, making a small crack in the driver's side.

"Damn." Greg muttered, "D.B. is going to be mad about that." Morgan frowned, listening to the noise again.

"It sounds like… a stampede." Morgan said finally.

Greg was about to ask her how many stampedes they had in Los Angeles, but he never got the chance. A loud crash thundered around them and red rocks and boulders collapsed onto the roadway like rain. Greg slammed on the brakes and even pulled the emergency brake, but the rockslide had gained enough momentum that it slammed into the driver's side of the Denali, shoving it to the right and into the guardrail.

Morgan screamed, covering her face. Some of the boulders were larger than the SUV and they shattered the glass windows on Greg's side of the vehicle. All the airbags deployed and the Denali was pushed over the steep ravine's edge, breaking through the metal guardrail to roll down the side of the canyon in a tornado of twisted metal and rocky debris, dragging Morgan and Greg along with it.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! (morganders-love, wannabewriter07, Sorrel2009 & Guest) Here is the next chapter for your reading pleasure.**

Chapter 2

The Denali tumbled sideways for twenty yards before slamming into a rocky outcropping and spinning around, so that its back fender faced the roadway and the windshield faced the bottom of the canyon. It bounced and slammed along for several more yards before smashing into a jagged piece of rock that stuck straight out of the canyon's side. The resulting collision tipped the back end of the Denali upwards as it crushed the front end of the SUV.

The back end of the SUV came up and over its front end; as it gathered momentum, it flipped over twice in a wild cartwheeling motion before catching on the side of a tree. It was forced sideways and then backwards, sliding the rest of the way down until it came to rest, its back end wedged between two rock formations that came together in a funnel shape and preventing the vehicle from dropping the remainder of the way down the canyon walls. It sat almost a hundred yards from the road above. Parts of the twisted metal of the guardrail that had been dragged behind the car landed on the windshield, splitting what was left of the glass and causing it to rain down inside of the SUV.

The dust, glass and debris settled into an uneasy silence. The cold night air blew through the broken windows of the SUV as its bright lights shone up towards the road.

After several minutes of this uneasy silence, Greg opened his eyes slowly, coughing in the haze of smoke left by the airbag deployment. His ears were ringing and he couldn't hear anything but the buzzing in his ears. The first thing he noticed were the bright lights of the Denali. Somehow, they still worked. They shone straight up the side of the ravine, lighting up their path of destruction down the canyon walls. The Denali's navigational computer blinked.

"Location….not….found…" The woman's voice on the GPS said slowly, before it shorted out, its screen going dark.

 _I'm alive. I'm alive. Oh my God, I'm alive…._ He thought in shocked surprise.

Greg tried to shift in his seat, but pain shot through his left side and he stopped with a sharp intake of breath. Instead, he turned his head slowly to look at Morgan; his neck hurt and he could feel blood pouring from a wound in his head and trickling down the side of his face.

She was still strapped into her seat; she had cuts on her face and arms. Her eyes were closed and her hair fanned out over her face, partially hiding it from view. Greg reached out and gently pushed her hair aside, wishing he was touching it under different circumstances.

"Morgan." Greg called out. Her eyes moved beneath the eyelids and she shifted.

"Uhh…" She groaned, then coughed, the smoke from the airbags still clearing the cabin of the vehicle. Her eyes opened and she focused on Greg.

"What… happened? Are we okay?" She started patting herself gently to check for injuries. She looked up at the path of destruction caused by the Denali on its way down the sides of the canyon.

"Oh… my god. Oh my god!" She gasped, barely believing that not only was she still alive, but that apart from the cuts and scrapes along her arms and on her face, she didn't appear to have any other serious injuries. Sure, her side hurt, but nothing seemed permanently damaged.

"Wiggle everything to see if it works." Greg said. Morgan tried it and winced when she got to her right ankle. The parts of the ankle she could see were the size of a softball, but the main part of her foot was tightly wedged under the dashboard.

"My ankle… is either sprained very badly or broken, I'm not sure." She told Greg. "And it's stuck under the dashboard. What about you?"

"My left arm is broken. I don't know about my leg, it's pinned under what's left of the dashboard over here and the door, I think." Greg said.

"Really, let me see… oh, god…" She stared at his arm. It was bent. She couldn't see the bone, but his arm was bent in the wrong place. Morgan had never seen a broken arm that severe in person before. Greg winced. His face had a distinct gray cast to it.

"I think, all things considered, it could have been worse. I must be shock, otherwise this would be a lot more painful and I would be freaking out more." He said. He tried to wiggle the leg that was trapped, but an angry jolt of pain quickly ended that idea. He clenched his teeth.

"You need stitches, Greg. Your head has glass in it." Morgan said, reaching out to touch his head wound. It didn't hurt, but blood was still flowing from it in drips.

"You too, you have a cut on your head that's bleeding." Greg said. Morgan reached up to prod the injury to her head. She looked at her hands when she felt blood there.

"Better leave it in for now, that glass is probably blocking it from bleeding even more." Greg said.

"We need… to call D.B. and get rescue out here." Morgan said, moving in her seat to reach for her phone. The car creaked loudly when she shifted her weight and they froze.

"Here, take my flashlight." Greg said. "Shine it back there and see what's holding us in this spot." Morgan took his flashlight, which was sticking out of his pocket, shining it towards the back of the SUV.

"Oh… Greg. We're wedged between two rocks. I think… as long as there aren't any more rockslides, we might be okay. I don't know, I can't really tell how stable this whole set up is." She turned off the flashlight and held onto it.

"Can you get to your phone?" Morgan asked him.

"No. It's in my back pocket on the left and I can't move without jostling my arm." Greg said, staying as still as possible. Morgan slowly reached for her own, trying to move as little as possible. Her phone had a crack in the screen, but it still worked. She unlocked it and tried dialing D.B.'s number, but the call wouldn't go through.

"I'm not getting any reception. I think the walls of the canyon are blocking the cell towers." Morgan said, trying to force away the rising sense of panic she felt.

"Uhhh… try 911." Greg said.

"What? What's the point if I have no reception?"

"Look, even if there aren't any bars, it could just mean that there isn't any reception from cell towers that belong to our service provider. So, there could be a competitor's tower nearby that's broadcasting a signal that your phone isn't picking up because it's a different company. All cell phone companies are required by law to have emergency calls go through to the call center, regardless of the provider, if a cell tower is close enough to pick up the signal." Greg said.

"Why didn't I know that?" Morgan wondered, dialing 911. The phone made some beeping noises and dropped the call before it went through. Morgan tried again and got the same result. She tried three more times but the call never went through.

"We'll try every couple of minutes." Greg said, when he saw that it wasn't working. Morgan started to get nervous; she blinked away the tears forming in her eyes. She didn't want Greg to see how worried she was about him.

"Greg… how are we going to get out of here if no one knows there's an emergency?"

He wanted to reach out to comfort her, but he was wedged into the side of the vehicle so tightly that it was impossible to extricate himself on his own. So instead he moved his good hand and arm and took her hand in his.

"They'll realize it on their own when we don't show up to the scene. Russell will have them go out looking and we'll be found. It's going to be fine." Greg assured her. He knew these things were true, but he was nervous as well.

How long would it take them to notice and get someone out here? He and Morgan could have internal injuries that they couldn't feel and if they were out here for hours, it could do a lot of damage, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. Morgan probably realized it, too. There was no point in worrying about something out of their control, anyway.

"So… what do we do in the mean time?" Morgan wondered.

"Wait… and hope they don't waste time." Greg said, giving her hand a squeeze.

~XXXXX~

"I don't know, Dave. I don't know why they aren't there yet, they aren't picking up their phones when I call them and Brass hasn't been able to reach them on the radio." Russell said to the assistant medical examiner.

"Just wait about fifteen minutes and see if they show up. If they don't, call me back." He said before hanging up. Frowning he walked out into the hallway. He needed to check in on Nick and Finn, who were working a case together. He saw them standing in the trace lab with Hodges, going over results.

"Hey, guys, how's the case going?" He asked. Nick, Finn and Hodges updated him on the status of the trace they found and its significance to their case.

"Great, that's good. Keep up the good work. Hey, listen… have either of you talked to Greg or Morgan in the last hour or so?" D.B. asked. Finn and Nick exchanged a confused look.

"I haven't, why?" Finn asked.

"It's… nothing. They left an hour ago to a crime scene in Red Rock Canyon and they still haven't arrived. Dave's been waiting and I'm starting to get a little worried." D.B. said.

"Maybe you should have someone go out there to look for them. They could've gotten lost." Nick said.

"Yeah… maybe. You'd think that they would call if they were lost, though." D.B. said.

"Well, maybe they don't have reception. There are parts of the canyon that don't get service." Nick said knowingly.

"I'll wait for Dave to call me back before sending anyone out to find them." D.B. said. When he left, Hodges voiced what Nick and Finn had been thinking.

"I get the feeling if they were lost, we would know. Can't they track the car's location with GPS?"

Finn looked at Nick, who nodded.

"Look them up and see what it says. If they're lost, it should still be showing them moving around in the vehicle." Nick said. Finn went over to a computer and Nick and Hodges came to see the results of her search.

"Pulling up the GPS positions of all the Denali's out now…" She said, typing in a password and pulling up a map of Vegas and the outlying areas.

"There's one… in Red Rock Canyon." Hodges said eagerly, pointing out the glowing blue dot on the map. But it wasn't moving.

"Let me zoom in a little…" Finn said, clicking the map so that the focus was only on Red Rock Canyon.

"It's not moving and it's not… on the road." Nick said as they zoomed in closer. According to the vehicle's GPS, the Denali was a hundred yards off the road and on the wall of the canyon off of road seven.

"Do you think that position is accurate?" Finn asked. They stared at it for almost a minute. The position never moved and the GPS locator continued blinking.

"I think… it is. We should tell D.B." Nick said, leaving the computer desk to find their boss and show him what they found.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** **Thank you to morganders-love, kristen, Rubyrach11, Sorrel2009 and guest for reviewing chapter 2! Not much** _ **action**_ **happens in this chapter…**

Chapter 3

Morgan shivered involuntarily. The windows were broken and the cold night air blew through the car. She was wearing a light jacket, but nothing heavy enough to really keep the cold away. Greg was shivering too, she noticed.

"Do you want me to try and get to the kits and find some pain reliever for you?" Morgan asked. She could tell Greg was coming out of shock already because his face was paler than earlier and a thin sheen of sweat developed across his forehead.

"No, I don't want you risking your own safety for me. Besides, how are you going to get back there with your ankle?" Greg asked, taking deep breaths.

"I could make it."

"No." Greg said stubbornly.

"Greg, I'm doing it." Morgan insisted, unbuckling her seatbelt.

"Morgan, please… I don't want you to hurt yourself." Greg pleaded. She looked at him. She could see the worry on his face, in his eyes. She didn't want him to feel obligated to worry about her, but she was worried about him. His arm was probably hurting him more than he wanted to admit. She tried not to think about what condition his leg was in underneath the dashboard.

"Greg… I don't want you to be in pain, do you understand that?" Morgan said. He blinked and looked at her in confusion.

"I'm going to try to get the kit, okay?"

"Morgan… I don't want you to get hurt, either!" Greg insisted desperately.

Morgan started trying to move her ankle out from under the dashboard. She winced as pain shot up her leg. She continued wiggling it back and forth, ignoring the violent stabs of pain ripping through it as she did so.

"Morgan… stop it, please?" Greg asked.

"No, I'm helping you. So… there!" She freed herself from the dashboard, but it hurt more than she wanted to admit. She stared down at it, swollen and stiff. The SUV hadn't moved, which she took as a good sign. She eased herself out of the seat, ignoring Greg's protests.

The car wasn't completely vertical, they were just at a steep angle. She leaned on her better leg and braced herself on the seats as she slowly lowered herself further into the back of the SUV. Greg gave up protesting and was turned as far as he could to watch her progress. One of their kits had come loose and was wedged between two seats. Morgan inched closer to it, reaching out to grab the handle, when the car creaked and shifted slightly. She grabbed the seat hurriedly, bracing herself with her good leg on what was left of the side of the vehicle.

"Morgan, this isn't worth it." Greg called back to her, worry in his voice.

"Yes it is." She insisted, reaching out again and grasping the handle of the kit. "Got it!" Making her way back into the seat would be the difficult part. She turned and held the kit up to Greg, who used his uninjured arm to grab it and pull it towards him. She was able to climb her way back up to her seat in stages. She crawled back into her seat and buckled herself in, panting with the effort of climbing with only one good leg.

"I can't believe you did that." Greg said, digging through the kit. He found pain medicine and took it with the bottle of water in the first aid part of the kit. He handed it off to Morgan, who took some as well. Her ankle was throbbing.

"Well, I wasn't just going to sit here and do nothing. Your arm is probably hurting like hell and you just aren't tell me about it." She said. Greg's face was still quite pale.

They spent the next several minutes going through the first aid section of the kit and using the alcohol wipes to clean up their cuts and scrapes. Morgan bandaged up some of Greg's cuts and she did her own since he couldn't move very much. The driver's side of the car had crumpled around him and she could tell that he was wedged in pretty tight.

"You're a good nurse." Greg said with a smile.

"Not that good…I'm going to leave that glass alone, I'm scared to touch it." She said.

"Well, I feel better than I did before, so that's something." He said as she wiped the blood from the side of his face.

"Have you ever been in a car accident before?" Morgan asked softly, as she maneuvered closer so that she could get the other side of his head.

"Several. You?"

"This is my first one ever." She admitted. She lowered her gaze to look at him and realized that they were only inches from one another. Greg wasn't as pale as he'd been only moments ago as the medicine worked its way through his system. She could feel his warm breath near her face. He blinked and she watched his eyes move to her mouth.

"You've never been in a car accident before tonight? Not even a fender bender?" He asked softly. She didn't want to move away from him. Despite his injuries, she liked the feeling of being near him.

"Well, sure a fender bender or two, but compared to this, those were nothing." She said, trying to get the blood in his hair. Greg winced and she pulled her hand back.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No, it's fine. It just stung a little." They were silent for a moment. _This isn't the best time for this, Morgan,_ she told herself. She pulled away and sat back down, trying to calm her heart. She'd finished cleaning the blood, and stuffed the wipes into the cup holder.

"Well, tell me about your several car accidents." She said, hoping that would ease the sudden tension between them. Greg studied her and then let his head fall back to rest on the seat.

"First one was when I was a teenager. My mom was pretty overprotective of me, so getting her to let me drive by myself was almost impossible. My dad finally talked her into it one night. I took the car out with some friends to hang out." Greg said.

"Oh, you wrecked the car on the first night out unsupervised?" Morgan asked.

Greg looked up at the sky through the broken window. " _I_ didn't wreck the car. The crazy guy who fell asleep at the wheel of another car did." He turned to look at Morgan, who made a sympathetic face.

"What kind of car was it?"

Greg chuckled. She arched and eyebrow. "A 1987 Buick Grand National GNX." Greg said. Morgan knew enough about cars to picture it in her head. Picturing Greg in it, on the other hand, was different. She wondered what he looked like in high school.

"Were you hurt?"

"Yep. A concussion, a broken wrist and a sprained ankle." Greg said.

"What about the other car accidents?"

Greg told her about the time in college when he'd been with one of his friends when they had an accident. He was sitting in the passenger seat when his friend lost control and spun out, crashing into a tree.

"That one was no big deal for me. I had some scrapes from the airbag, but otherwise I was fine. My friend had a couple of broken fingers and that was it. His car was totaled, though."

"Any others?"

"Last one before this one was the time with Nick, Hodges and Henry." Greg said. Morgan stared at him in surprise.

"You four were in a car accident together?"

"Yeah, we were going to take Henry to this great barbeque place for his birthday a couple of years back, but we got into an accident on the way. This crazy drunk woman ran us off the road."

"Were any of you hurt?" Morgan wondered.

"Not really. I mean, the car rolled once, but we landed right side up. I had to crawl out the passenger side window because the door wouldn't open. Henry had a sprained ankle, I think." Greg said. Morgan laughed.

"What?" Greg asked.

"You… are one of the most resilient people I've ever met. You're amazing!" She said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Nick told me about what happened to you with Demetrius James." Morgan admitted. Greg lowered his gaze. Morgan instantly felt bad. _Why did I bring that up?_ She wondered desperately.

"How much did he tell you?" Greg asked finally, after a few moments of silence.

"As much of it as there was, as far as I know. He said that a group of teens and college kids were roaming Vegas, beating up tourists for fun. They killed a man who wasn't even a tourist. You caught them in an alley attacking another man, so you intervened on his behalf. One of the mob came at you and you hit him with your Denali. The mob got mad and pulled you from the car and beat you and left you for dead." Morgan summarized. Greg thought that sounded about right.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up, I just… I don't know. I was trying to make you feel better, but I'm not that great at that." Morgan said.

"You don't need to apologize, I just didn't know that you knew about that." Greg said.

"I think Nick was very mad about the whole thing at the time. He sounded mad when he was telling it." Morgan said.

"I helped them catch them, though. I got DNA from the leader during the attack and that's what helped put them away." Greg said. After that, Morgan didn't know how else to distract them from the situation they were in. They sat in silence, listening to the wind blow through the broken windows and staring at the stars. Morgan pulled out her phone and tried calling 911 again. The call didn't go through. She put it back in her pocket with a sigh.

Morgan didn't want to voice her negative thoughts out loud, but the longer they sat there, the more worried she became about Greg. She had no way to tell how his leg was doing, and his arm needed a splint. Although the wound on his head wasn't bleeding, she had no way to tell how severe it was or how deep the glass went.

Morgan reflected on her memories of Greg. Their first meeting had been awkward. At the time, she'd had a major crush on Nick because she'd worked with him in L.A. Sure, Greg had helped, but she never saw him in person until she came to Vegas. She'd been surprised to find that he didn't look at all how she pictured him, but at the time she was still caught up on the idea of Nick.

Then her crush on Nick faded. He became a good friend and nothing more. For a time, she liked Hodges, too. It was barely a crush; once their parents started dating, any romantic feelings towards him evaporated. She felt rather foolish, jumping from one crush to the next as if she were still in junior high.

Then one day, she noticed him. She really thought about him and how kind he was and she felt even more foolish. Greg had been in front of her the whole time, intelligent, funny and very cute.

Then they had the case with the girl in the piano. Seeing the way he looked at her in autopsy made Morgan think, for the first time, "I want a man too look at me with that much longing in his eyes." What she really wanted was that man to be Greg.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you to wannabewriter07, kristen and Sorrel2009 for reviewing chapter 3! Here is the next chapter…**

Chapter 4

Nick and Finn showed D.B. the results of their search for Greg and Morgan's Denali and the time limit he'd placed on Dave had come and gone. The assistant medical examiner called him back to let him know that Greg and Morgan had not arrived at the scene, so he was going to load the body into the van and take it to the morgue.

"All right, that's fine. Thanks Dave." He hung up.

"Did they get there?" Nick asked.

"No, they didn't. If their GPS is broadcasting a signal from that location, then they must have had a wreck. I'll make a call and see if they can get someone to do a fly over to check." D.B. said. Nick and Finn hung around to see if they could help while D.B. made the phone calls.

"They're going to send a chopper over there to look for them. Nick, I want you on it. Finn, you keep working the case that you and Nick were on. Got it?"

"Sure thing." Nick agreed.

"Okay." Finn said. "You have to call me and update me with whatever you know." She said to Nick, who agreed as he ran to meet the helicopter pilot.

~XXXXX~

Greg didn't want Morgan to know how much pain he was in because it was useless. There wasn't anything either one of them could do to fix it. He'd taken the maximum dosage of pain pills from the kit. They hadn't spoken for a good fifteen minutes. Morgan didn't usually run out of things to say, so her silence surprised him.

The weather was getting colder, as it usually did in Vegas at night. People always seemed so surprised by how cold it got at night, since it was so warm during the day. They didn't realize that Las Vegas was quite literally in the middle of a desert and that it was normal to have such extreme variations in temperature between night and day. Even though it was summer, Greg wished he'd brought a jacket. Not wanting to dwell on how cold he was and how much pain he was in, he broke the silence between them.

"What are you thinking about?" Greg asked.

"Oh, nothing." Morgan said.

"Even if it's nothing, it helps to talk. I need to be distracted from… this." He said, gesturing at the wreckage around them. Morgan smiled.

"I was thinking about the first time we met. Remember?"

"Oh yeah, I remember." Greg replied. He'd been so awkward and afterwards berated himself for not being wittier or… just not awkward.

"I told you that you didn't look like a history nerd. I don't know what I thought you would look like. I think I pictured you as some middle-aged man with gray hair and glasses." Morgan said with a slight laugh.

"Really? Well, I'm glad to have exceeded your expectations…or at least I hope I did." Greg said.

"You did. You are much cuter than I was expecting." She said.

"Oh, well thank you." Greg said with a satisfied smile. She laughed.

"I didn't know you were coming, so I had no expectations about the way you looked. I just knew what Nick told me." Greg said.

"Oh, what did Nick say?"

"Just that you were Conrad's daughter and you seemed like a good CSI." Morgan folded her arms over her chest with a slight harrumph.

"What, you expected him to say more than that?" Greg asked.

"Maybe. You know, I had the biggest crush on Nick for about… a month." Morgan admitted. She was surprised that she admitted it out loud to him. She knew how close Nick and Greg were, so it was the same as admitting it to Nick's face. Greg felt his eyebrows go up in surprise.

"You did?"

"Oh, yeah. When he came to L.A. I thought he was great. Then I came to Vegas, all excited to see him again and he introduced me to you." Morgan said. Greg knew there was some subtext he was missing. Her crush on Nick ended…why?

"Why did you stop liking Nick?" Greg asked, figuring he might as well come right out with it.

"He went on that date with Doc Robbin's niece for one. I don't know, I just… he was nice, but I realized it wasn't really going to go anywhere." Morgan said.

"Why not?"

"The age difference was a factor, I think. Nick was cute but I came to realize he wasn't really my type. I think I liked him, at least at the time, because…and I hate to admit this out loud…but I think it was more issues with my dad." Morgan admitted, her shoulders sagging as if she'd just pushed a large weight off of them.

"So… Nick reminded you of what you wished your dad was?" Greg asked.

Morgan nodded slowly. "Something like that. I guess he seemed like the gentlemanly type of guy that wouldn't…give up on someone easily, you know?" Morgan went silent and Greg knew he was digging into very personal things. Morgan's relationship with her dad had been rocky for a long time and he knew that after his divorce from her mother, they went to Los Angeles where her mother remarried and Morgan took her step-father's last name.

He knew that Morgan and Ecklie had reconciled and were trying to get past all the wrongdoings from her childhood, but it wasn't going to be healed overnight. Morgan still had issues. She hadn't specified what they were, but Greg had a feeling it had to do with feeling abandoned by him for his job.

"Anyone who gives up on you doesn't deserve you." Greg said firmly. Morgan lifted her eyes to stare at him. He could see tears shining in hers. She blinked the tears away and offered him a shaking smile.

"Thank you, Greg. I appreciate that. I'm sorry for dumping on you about all my daddy issues, it's not exactly important considering our current…problem."

"Morgan, of course it's important. It's not the same kind of problem, so don't compare them." Greg insisted. Morgan chewed her bottom lip and sniffled. She hated the fact that bringing these things up made her angry and that, when she was really angry, her first instinct was to cry. _Why can't I be all badass, why do I have to cry when I get mad?_

"It's just, it's not as though I'm the first woman to have abandonment issues with her father. I know that and I recognize it, but knowing it and realizing that my behavior is a result of it is… difficult. I guess that's why I have such horrible luck with boyfriends." She admitted. _I shouldn't be talking to Greg about this. I want_ _him_ _to be my boyfriend, but if I go around blabbing about all of my emotional baggage, he's going to run screaming in the other direction for a woman who's got it together._

"What do you mean, horrible luck?"

"I have issues with commitment. As soon as we get close, I push them all away. I don't even realize I'm doing it until I've done irreparable damage. By then, we've broken up and they've moved on." Morgan said.

"So, it's not really luck. You're doing something to make them leave because you figure it's easier to drive them off then to wait around for them to eventually abandon you. At least that way, you're in control." Greg said.

Morgan gasped. At first, she felt a hint of anger. She wanted to defend herself, but… when she actually thought about it, he was right.

"How… you…put it into words perfectly." She admitted.

Greg smiled sadly and took her hand in his. "That's the thing, Morgan. All of us are damaged. It's just about finding the person who cares enough about you that they're willing to shoulder yours in addition to theirs."

~XXXXX~

The chopper pilot was a woman named Sylvia and she explained to Nick that they would be using thermal imaging to look for the wreck, if it was there. Nick was familiar with how to use the camera and viewfinder, so she didn't have to waste a lot of time explaining the process to him. They went up quickly and headed towards Red Rock Canyon in less than twenty minutes.

"So, you think your colleagues have been in an accident. How do you know?" Sylvia shouted over the sounds of the chopper blades.

"The GPS has them off the road somewhere in the canyon. We don't know how accurate it is, but the position hasn't moved in the last hour, so we wanted to check. The roads up there are difficult to navigate and we didn't want anyone else getting lost while looking for them." Nick shouted back. Sylvia nodded.

"Well, then you came to the right person! Make sure you turn your radio on, you can connect to CSI Russell and communicate with him directly about what you see. If we find them and they're in a situation where they need help, we can contact the fire department and search and rescue from the chopper so that they can get out to their location as soon as possible. If we don't find anything, then you might have to wait for daylight to start a search."

Nick didn't want to think about having to wait for daylight to search for his friends, especially Greg. After everything they'd been through in the last couple of years, he figured that the both of them and Morgan needed a long, relaxing vacation. He silently vowed that once they found Greg, they would make plans to go on a trip together and not think about work or stress.

~XXXXX~

Morgan stared at Greg. He always knew what to say to make her feel better and to think about her motivation behind the things she did.

"You're a good person, don't let other people tell you differently." Greg said. She reached out and took his right hand and squeezed it. She knew Greg was right. Maybe that's why she'd been so afraid to try anything with him; she was nervous that she would find a way to ruin it, which would make work very uncomfortable.

"Maybe you should look to date someone who understands this about you before starting a relationship with them." Greg said. _But that means I would have to trust them enough to tell them before we started dating,_ she thought.

 _You just told Greg. You trust him,_ the little voice in the back of head whispered.

"You understand it. You understand it better than I do." Morgan blurted before she could stop herself.

"Are you… asking me out on a date?" Greg wondered and Morgan felt her face get warm with nervousness.

"I… only if the answer is yes. If the answer is no, then consider that last statement as a thank you." Morgan said. Greg took a shuddering breath, as if he were about to answer, but she heard a strange noise come from his chest, a gurgling.

"Greg… are you all right?" She unbuckled her seatbelt and got up, bracing herself against the seat to lean forward and look at him. He blinked his eyes rapidly and the gurgling got louder. She shone the flashlight into his eyes and realized his pupils were dilated.

"I…can't… breathe…" He gurgled. He coughed and blood appeared in his mouth.

"Oh God… no… no, no, no! Greg? GREG!"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you to morganders-love, wannabewriter07, Sorrel2009 and Guest for reviewing and thanks to those of you who are following the story! Here is the next chapter…**

Chapter 5

Nick aimed the viewfinder and watched the ground pass beneath the helicopter with the thermal imaging camera after they left the major population centers in Vegas. Sylvia turned on a spotlight to help scan the canyon as well and Nick could hear her notifying the rangers in Red Rock Canyon that she was doing a fly over to look for a potential wreck.

"They were off of road seven!" Nick called out, and Sylvia gave him a thumbs up to let him know that she heard. They followed that road along the canyon and Nick made sure to scan along the sides of the canyon just off the road to check for the heat signature of a car or people. He saw some deer, but not much else.

He privately wondered if the GPS just had a glitch and was leading them in the wrong direction, but when Finn had looked up their movements up until they lost contact, it showed Greg and Morgan travelling along road seven.

"Hey! I see lights!" Sylvia called. Nick looked up to see a bright lights shining from somewhere among the rocks of the canyon, so he pointed the camera in that direction.

"I think I found it! I see the heat signatures of two people and a car." Nick said. Sylvia turned that direction so that they could move the spotlight over it to confirm that they were actually seeing a wrecked car with people inside and not a camp or something else. Nick turned on his radio connecting him to Russell.

"Hey, Russell, this is Stokes, you copy?"

"I copy, Nick. Have you found anything?"

"We think so, we're doing a fly over to confirm. I have to take pictures with the thermal camera and Sylvia's going to use the spotlight to make sure it isn't just a camp."

"Great."

"There it is." Sylvia called out, shining a spotlight down on the source of the bright lights. Nick aimed the thermal camera at it and saw the heat signature of a car and two people, who didn't appear to be moving very much. He took several pictures, making sure to log the exact GPS coordinates to forward to search and rescue.

"Come up here." Sylvia said, beckoning him forward. Nick came to sit in the co-pilot seat to look at the car.

"Oh…God. That's it, that's their car, but…" Nick shook his head.

"How could anyone survive a crash like that?" He asked out loud, sitting back in his seat and rubbing his eyes.

"They did, look!" Sylvia yelled. Nick shot forward and looked down. He saw an arm sticking out the window, waving frantically.

"Oh thank God!" Morgan's blonde hair became visible and she waved her arm again. Nick got on the radio and contacted Russell.

"They're here, the Denali is totaled, but I can see Morgan waving her hand. You better call Ecklie and let him know. I can't see Greg…the driver's side of the car is… crushed." Nick said, trying not to choke up.

"We're sending out search and rescue, thanks Nick!" Russell replied. Nick looked over at Sylvia, who was taking several pictures of the accident with the high definition camera.

"What are you doing?"

"I need pictures so we can send them to the rescue team. They need to know what they're dealing with. Look at their position!" She pulled back and Nick got a better look at the path of destruction the Denali created down the sides of the canyon.

The Denali sat wedged between two rock formations, surrounded by other rocky debris and twisted pieces of the guardrail. They were at a 45 degree angle and at least a football field's length away from the road above.

"Right, that makes sense. We need to hurry, we don't know what condition the driver's in." Nick said. Sylvia nodded, turning the helicopter around as she contacted base.

"We need a rescue team out to Red Rock canyon. There's been an accident, I'm getting a CSI to send you the pictures now." She said, handing the camera to Nick.

~XXXXX~

Morgan watched the helicopter fly away. She didn't lose hope; she knew they were calling it in to get a rescue team out to their location.

"Greg?" She shook him and his eyes opened slowly. His breathing had improved only because she'd done an emergency procedure on him. She'd found a straw still in its wrapper in the glove box when Greg passed out and knew that she had to use it as a makeshift tube to create an airway.

There was a knife in the kit and she knew enough about his injuries to know that he needed an alternate airway and when she looked down his throat, it was clear, so the source of his problem had to be his lungs.

She'd woken him up long enough to explain what she was going to do. Greg nodded frantically, his breaths coming irregularly and the gurgling getting louder. She knew that prolonged depletion of oxygen to the brain could cause permanent brain injury and memory loss. She did not want Greg to have to suffer through that, too!

"I'm sorry, this is going to hurt." She said. She partially removed his vest and shirt and did what she could to ignore his chest. She felt along his side until she found a gap in his ribs and he winced. She sliced into his skin, making a deep hole. Greg cried out, the gurgling in his chest getting louder before his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out.

"Oh God… oh God…." She chanted, cutting the hole as deep as she dared before shoving the straw through it and into his lung. Air that had been trapped inside leaked out and thankfully, no blood came out with it. After a couple of nerve wracking minutes, Greg woke up. He stared at the straw and then at Morgan. He took a breath and winced.

"I can… breathe. Thank… you!" He said between short gasps.

"You need to take deep breaths. I know it probably hurts, but you'll hyperventilate if you keep breathing that way." Morgan said, examining her work.

"Yes." Greg said. Confused, Morgan looked up at him.

"What?"

"I'll…go on a date…with you." He said a smile going over his face. Morgan stared at him incredulously.

"You…will?"

"As long as… I get out …of this problem." He said between gasps of air.

"Oh, you will. We will! Did you see the spotlight and hear the helicopter? They found us! Now we just have to hope they hurry up and get here with a rescue team." Morgan said. Greg nodded, his breathing becoming regular as he took deep breaths.

"I know that this…probably goes…without saying…but I've had…the biggest crush on you ever since you got here." Greg said between breaths. Morgan had a sneaking suspicion about that crush too, but it hadn't been until she bought that Sinatra album that she was sure she returned his feelings. She remembered the sly look in his eyes when Donna had told them they looked cute together.

"I thought so!" She said, rubbing his arm. Greg smiled.

"I'm not very good… at hiding my emotions sometimes. I'm also…not very good…at getting hints…either. The best is…yet to come?" Morgan flushed at this. She'd hoped at the time he'd get it and she thought he had, on some level, but she didn't want to push him into something he wasn't ready for at the time, so she waited for him to realize it on his own. Now, though, she decided to make the first move.

"I wanted to tell you that I liked you without putting any pressure on you. I mean, what with Allison and all, I figured that wouldn't be the best time for romance." Morgan said. "You're not bad at getting hints!"

"I'm bad…at first…impressions. Just like… how some people… can tell I'm a cop… from across a dark club." He said, rolling his eyes. Morgan remembered that case well. Afterwards, she and Greg went out for a beer. It was mostly to prevent his identity crisis. She'd tried to hint about her feelings there, too, but she didn't know if Greg was receptive to it at the time since he was so preoccupied with the idea of someone thinking he was a cop when he was a CSI.

"What did that man say to you, specifically?"

"Yes…he thought Russell and I…were there…to raid the place. I believe…his exact words… were that…I was…'scanning the room…like some Nordic terminator'…" Greg said.

"Oh, you're a Nordic terminator, huh? Well lucky for you, that means when we get rescued you're going to be just fine. Right?" She took out the last of the alcohol wipes and cleaned around the tube she'd put in. Greg winced and laughed softly.

"You know…the idea of me…being any kind of terminator…is quite ironic. I wasn't exactly…the athletic type…in high school or college." Greg said. Morgan had heard about his antics as a young DNA tech, dancing in the hallway with a dancer's headdress, playing the air drums to loud rock and roll in the DNA lab with a glove on his head. This revelation didn't surprise her based on what she'd heard from Nick, Catherine and Sara.

"I know…some people who would…laugh at the idea….of me being…a Nordic terminator." Greg said. Morgan smiled.

"Well, when was the last time you talked to those people?"

"Uhh…maybe about a couple…days ago." Greg said honestly. Morgan laughed. Greg had his sense of humor intact, which meant that he was probably going to be okay. She took comfort in that, even though she couldn't do anything to help his arm or leg.

"So, who's planning our date, me or you?" Morgan asked him.

"Well, you asked me so how about you plan it? Surprise me." Greg said. Morgan leaned forward and carefully kissed his mouth. She could feel Greg's smile as she deepened the kiss as much as she dared. She pulled away, pressing her forehead to his.

"Challenge accepted, Sanders."

~XXXXX~

Sylvia landed the chopper at an airstrip just outside of town. They sent the pictures and coordinates to search and rescue. Nick contacted Russell to let him know that they had found the Denali. He sent him copies of the pictures they took as well.

"They're getting the fire department out here because Sylvia said she's pretty sure they'll need the Jaws of Life to cut Greg out of the driver's side of the SUV. You'll see what I mean when you look at the footage of the wreck, I sent it to you and Finn." Nick said.

"Good work, Nick. Are they headed to Desert Palm Hospital?"

"Yeah, the fire department chopper will take them straight there." Nick replied.

"We'll head that way. You stay will Sylvia and keep us posted on the rescue team's progress, all right?"

"Sure thing, boss." Nick hung up and Sylvia reappeared.

"We're all fueled and ready to go. Search and rescue gathered their gear and they're already heading out. ETA for them is about fifteen minutes, but we'll be on hand to assist with whatever they need. My chopper's equipped to handle a rescue in desperate situations, but let's hope it doesn't come to that." She smiled.

Nick completely agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks for all the continued reviews and follows! Here's the next chapter…**

Chapter 6

Morgan could hear the helicopters approaching; there had to be at least three of them. Greg was looking at her and he had the look in his eyes. The one that she'd always wished he would have while looking at her. Adoration and happiness. She only wished that they didn't have to go through something so traumatic for the both of them to finally admit their feelings and act upon them.

"They're coming, Greg. I'm sure they'll pull me out first since I'm not stuck, but I'll be waiting for you, okay?" Morgan said. Greg nodded. He couldn't believe his luck. Even though they'd been in such a horrible accident, he and Morgan might have never figured out their feelings if they hadn't been given this time alone to talk to each other.

Dust and debris from the helicopters swirled around blew up through the broken windshield. A spotlight shone down on them. Greg could see the lights ahead of them and off to the right. Rope was thrown down from each of the three helicopters hovering overhead. Members of the Las Vegas Fire Department came down each of the ropes; they held tools in their hands.

Greg and Morgan watched as they surrounded the front end of the Denali. One of the rescue workers moved to the passenger side window to talk to them.

"Hey, how are you two doing?"

"I'm okay, but he needs help!" Morgan yelled over the helicopter noise above, pointing at Greg. The rescue worker stared at her makeshift chest tube and nodded.

"Since you seem to be able to move freely about the car, we're going to take you up first, all right?" He shouted back. Morgan nodded and then turned to look at Greg. He wanted so badly to go with her, but there was no way he'd get out of the wreck on his own. He hadn't told Morgan, but his leg had gone entirely numb and he could no longer feel it. He didn't know what that meant, exactly, but it couldn't be good.

"I'll be waiting for you, Greg. You're going to pull through just fine so that we can go on the awesome date I have planned." She said. She leaned over and kissed him again, not caring if the rescue worker saw or not. Greg smiled.

"Go, be…safe." He rasped. The rescue worker pried the passenger side door open with a simple looking tool. He brought a bright red stretcher out with straps on the side.

"I'm fine, I don't need this!" Morgan yelled at him. Greg wanted to laugh; Morgan could be delightfully stubborn.

"It'll make you easier to transport, regardless." The rescue worker reasoned. He positioned it behind her back and another worker strapped her in, buckling the harnesses and anchoring her feet securely at the bottom of the stretcher. They pulled her from the car through the passenger side door and Greg watched as they put her in a basket that had been lowered from one of the helicopters. As soon as she was strapped in and they hooked up the pulley system, she disappeared from view, moving up into the air with the helicopter and leaving Greg on his own.

~XXXXX~

"It looks like they got Morgan out!" Nick said over the phone. D.B., Sara and Finn were on the other line. He knew that the rest of the lab was probably listening in on the conversation, eager to find out what happened.

Before he and Sylvia had left the helipad outside of Vegas, Ecklie had come tearing into the lot in the Sheriff's vehicle, insisting that he be allowed to join their flight. Luckily, Sylvia had room for one more person. She moved Ecklie to the co-pilot's seat while Nick reported their progress back to the lab.

Ecklie was leaned forward as far as he could get, watching as a machine pulled the stretcher and basket up to the medivac helicopter hovering over the wreck. Nick could get an even more vivid picture of the damage done to the vehicle with three spotlights shining down on it. Once Morgan was in the helicopter, it zoomed away towards Desert Palm.

"The chopper is heading to the hospital now, she should be there in about ten minutes!" Nick said. He heard clapping on the other end of the line.

"They're getting out the Jaws of Life for Greg, he must be wedged in pretty tight!" Nick said. The rescue workers surrounded the left side of the vehicle, bringing out the Jaws of Life.

"What's that?" Ecklie yelled.

"What?" Sylvia asked.

Ecklie pointed up and Nick glanced up. He could see movement from the upper parts of the canyon.

"What caused this accident, anyway?" Ecklie yelled. Sylvia and Nick studied the movement, ignoring his question.

"Uhhh, Sylvia? You better warn those workers down there, I think something bad is about to happen!" Nick yelled.

~XXXXX~

Greg could hear the workers come around the left side of the SUV. One of them had the Jaws of Life in his hands. He heard clamoring and yelling. Confused, he watched as one of the workers was suddenly visible through the windshield.

"Do you have anything to cover your head with?" He yelled. Greg shook his head.

Then he saw why they were panicking and rushing away. He watched in horror as more rocks came tumbling down the side of the canyon towards the Denali. He couldn't move, he couldn't do anything except close his eyes and hope that they missed the Denali and the rescue workers.

He heard a loud crunch and the Denali creaked before moving backwards. Pain ripped through his left side and he couldn't hold in the yell. The Denali scraped along the sides of the canyon as it was pushed even further into the crevasse between the two rock formations holding it in place. Greg saw stars and he couldn't breathe again. Everything was starting to go black as he heard metal grinding away.

~XXXXX~

"Oh my God!" Nick yelled. Rocks came tumbling down the side of the canyon. The rescue workers dove out of the way as one boulder crashed into the front of the Denali, breaking its headlights and shoving it through the crevasse that it had been wedged into. The roof was partially shorn off like a potato peel as it slid and came to a precarious stop on the precipice of the canyon. The only thing holding it in place was the other rock formation. When the rocks and dust settled, Nick watched in horror.

Sylvia circled around, back away from the accident.

"What are you doing?" Nick yelled.

"I don't want to make it any more unstable than it already is. I'm pulling back for his safety." She said. Ecklie moved to allow Nick room to come forward and stare from the window.

"We need to speed this up." Ecklie said to Sylvia. "Give me that radio!"

~XXXXX~

 _For some reason, I'm not dead,_ was the first thought that popped into Greg's mind. He looked up and saw that the headlights were out and huge boulder sat resting against the front grille of the SUV. The rescue workers surrounded him again and immediately got to work on the door. They shoved the Jaws of Life into the space between the door and the frame and forced them apart. They did this several times and at several locations around the door until Greg suddenly felt loose in his seat. His hip was dislodged from the side of the vehicle!

He took deep breaths, like Morgan had encouraged, despite the stabbing pains in his chest. Greg had no sense of time. They were probably working as quickly as they could, but for him it felt agonizingly slow. They worked on the door and frame until Greg watched as they stuck something that looked like a large level in between the door and the frame and pried the door off.

"Can you move your leg?" One of them asked. Greg shook his head and they went to work prying the dashboard off of his numb leg. The process for this was slow as well. One of the other workers came in from the other side of the vehicle to examine him. She saw the tube coming out of his chest and put an oxygen mask over his face.

"This should help with the breathing!" She said. Greg instantly felt better and less light headed. They pulled out a stretcher that looked like the one Morgan used.

"You might feel pain when we move this." The worker who was working on the dashboard said. Greg nodded, unable to speak with the mask on his face. The car made a loud crunching noise as the dashboard was lifted from his leg. Greg prepared for the pain he thought he would feel, but instead he realized his leg was still numb. _This can't be good,_ he thought.

Two of the workers put their arms underneath him and lifted him up. He winced, his arm jostled as they did so. They slid the stretcher underneath him and strapped him in tightly. The woman who'd given him a mask before put his neck in a brace and had already started an IV line while he was distracted. She taped the IV bag to the stretcher and they pulled him from the car. Greg looked up at the bright lights of the helicopter; he had never felt this thankful to see one in his whole life.

~XXXX~

Nick watched as they extricated Greg from the vehicle slowly. He couldn't tell from his vantage point if he was okay or not, or if he was even awake. He could see an oxygen mask attached to his face.

"Greg's out of the Denali, they're pulling him up to the helicopter!" Nick said over the phone to Russell, Finn, Sara and whoever else was listening. He could hear a cheer go up.

"They're heading to Desert Palm as soon as possible." He said, as Sylvia turned the helicopter around and made her way back to the helipad.

"I can land using the department helipad closer to the hospital if you like, I just need to call it in." She said.

"Yes, please do." Ecklie said. They raced away from the scene, anxious to reunite with Greg and Morgan at the hospital. When they landed, Ecklie jumped out and was on the phone in seconds. He grabbed Nick and they took a police vehicle to Desert Palm.

"We'll probably get there before Greg does, but Morgan should already be in the emergency room." Ecklie said. Nick texted Russell to let them know they could head to the hospital if they wanted because they'd be there soon.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks to wannabewriter07 and Sorrel2009 for reviewing chapter 6! Here is the next chapter…**

Chapter 7

Morgan was frustrated.

They scanned her head and everything else to make sure she didn't have any unknown internal bleeding or injuries. Everything came back normal. She had severe bruising to her right side and a bruise in the shape and size of a seatbelt across her torso, but those were nothing compared to her ankle. The doctor explained that she'd broken her fibula near the joint. They showed her the x-rays.

"So, can you put a cast on it?" She asked. They'd given her medicine so that it didn't hurt.

"No, we need to set it with pins. You'll need surgery and physical therapy." The doctor said.

"What? There isn't any other way?"

"No, ma'am, there isn't." She'd wanted to see Greg when he got to the hospital, but instead, she was prepped for surgery to fix her ankle. They'd removed her damaged clothes and wheeled her away before she ever saw Greg or anyone else from the lab.

~XXXXX~

Nick, D.B., Sara, Finn and Ecklie all gathered at Desert Palm, anxiously waiting to hear news about Morgan and Greg. They'd both arrived safely and the doctor had come out briefly to explain that they were both in surgery and that they were stable and making good progress, but he didn't go into details about what type of surgery they were getting and how long it would take. The rest was a waiting game. Instead, he rushed away as quickly as he came out.

Finn and Sara went back to the lab to make sure everything was covered while they waited. Nick, D.B. and Ecklie stayed at the hospital. Several hours after they arrived, a doctor appeared in the waiting room.

"Family and friends of Morgan Brody?" He asked. They all got up and surrounded him.

"How is she?" Ecklie asked.

"She's coming out of surgery now, she's still pretty groggy so she won't be very responsive at first. We had to set her broken ankle with screws and a metal plate. It's going to take her several months to heal and she'd going to need physical therapy to regain full use of her ankle, but otherwise, she doesn't have any serious injuries. She's quite lucky in that regard. You can see her if you like." He said, pointing out where her room was.

"Do you know anything about Greg Sanders?" Nick asked.

"He was with her in the accident, right? Came in via medivac about an hour later?"

"Yes, sir."

"He's in surgery as well, he had quite a few injuries, but I'm not sure about the details. I can get them if you like."

"Yes, please." Nick said. The doctor left and they went to find Morgan's room. When they entered, they found her in bed, her eyes closed. She had an IV in her arm and a black and metal frame on her right leg which stopped at the knee. The doctors elevated her leg slightly with pillows.

"Morgan?" Ecklie asked, stepping forward to hold the side of the hospital bed. Her eyes moved under the lids before opening slowly. D.B. and Nick hung back a little.

"Dad?" She croaked quietly, blinking and shifting around. She stared at her leg.

"Ugghhh."

"If you like, we can leave you two alone." Russell said to Ecklie.

"Wait, how is Greg?" Morgan asked, trying to sit up. Her dad gently grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back into the bed.

"He's in surgery, your doctor went to get an update for us." She sighed and rubbed her eyes in exhaustion.

"How are you feeling?" Nick asked, approaching the other side of the hospital bed, with D.B. right next to him.

"Good, considering what I've been through. I didn't get a good look at the car, but I'm sure it could have turned out a lot worse for the both of us." Morgan said.

"I think we're all thankful that it didn't. So, what caused it?" Ecklie asked his daughter.

"A rockslide. We were driving along when a rock hit the windshield and cracked it. Then we heard this noise that sounded like thunder and before you know it… we had a pile of rocks come raining down from the sky onto the Denali." Morgan said.

"Well, we're all glad you're okay." D.B. said.

"Me too, although I'm honestly tired of seeing the inside of a hospital. I'm sure Greg agrees." She said. Nick chuckled and gave her hand a pat. A knock came at the door and they all turned to see the doctor from earlier.

"You wanted an update on Greg Sanders?"

"Yes!" Morgan exclaimed, sitting up again. The doctor entered the room and made sure to pull the door closed behind him.

"Well, I have to be honest. His injuries were quite serious. I understand you were responsible for that makeshift chest tube of his?" He asked, looking at Morgan. She nodded.

"It saved his life." The doctor said frankly and she smiled with relief. "He would have suffocated without it."

"Greg suffered multiple broken bones. He has an oblique fracture of the left femur that required surgery to fix. We inserted a metal plate and several screws for that. He also has a compound fracture of the left forearm that required surgery to set and fix, also with a metal plate and screws. He's going to be healing for up to the next six months."

"Six months!" Morgan gasped, settling back into the hospital bed. Poor Greg!

The doctor nodded. "A broken femur is not an easy injury to bounce back from and he's going to need a lot of physical therapy. In addition to his broken bones he sustained a rib fracture which punctured one of his lungs, causing it to partially collapse. Your chest tube, Ms. Brody, gave him enough air to prevent it from collapsing entirely. The rest, compared to those injuries were nothing. A couple of stitches to the head for the laceration there, but other than that he should be okay."

Morgan sighed with relief. "Thank you. When can I see him?"

"Well he's just coming out of surgery now, so he'll need to stay in recovery for a while before anyone can go in and see him. He'll be groggy and out of it for a couple of hours. I'll have someone let you know. Now, you… should be getting some rest!" The doctor said to Morgan, who nodded. The adrenaline was wearing off and she could barely keep her eyes open. The doctor ushered Ecklie, Russell and Nick out of the room so that Morgan could sleep.

~XXXXX~

When Greg opened his eyes, he was confused. It took him a minute to remember where he was and why.

"Ugghh." He looked down at himself. His left leg was in some kind of black brace. He had bandages wrapped tightly around his thigh. The brace went all the way up to his hip and all the way down to his ankle. It had a joint at the knee to allow movement and he could see where the brace could be easily removed. He had a white cast on his left forearm. There was no mirror in the room for him to see his face, but he could feel the stitches in his scalp and his chest was sore.

He glanced up at the clock and frowned. It was already 4pm the next afternoon! He pushed the call button for the nurse. _I just want to take a shower and have a glass of water_ , he thought. The nurse appeared with the doctor.

"You're finally awake, how are you feeling?"

"Like I need a shower and a drink of water." Greg said. They had him try to stand on his leg first, which was wobbly and unstable, but he was able to do it thanks to the brace they'd put on him. He couldn't put much weight on it because it hurt, so they put him in a wheelchair since he couldn't use crutches with a broken arm.

He was allowed to take a shower and have several glasses of water, despite the fact he had IV fluids and antibiotics running through his good arm. The nurse removed his bandages before he showered, but it felt so good. He didn't realize how much red dust had gotten into his hair until he stuck his head under the water and watched it swirl down the drain. He frowned down at the long incision along his inner thigh; it would be a giant scar to add to the others he had on his back.

When he finished and was re-bandaged and dressed, he was wheeled back to his bed.

"The woman you were in the accident has been wanting to see you, is that all right?" The nurse asked once he was resituated and had a plate of food in front of him.

"Yes!" Greg said eagerly, wanting to see how Morgan was doing. The nurse went to go get her and Greg devoured the meal they put in front of him without really looking at it. He was finishing up a slice of orange when Morgan came hobbling into the room on crutches and with a smile on her face.

"Greg! How are you?" She sat on his bed near his feet.

"Pretty good, I suppose." He replied, pointing at the brace on his leg. Greg could see that Morgan had the same setup, except hers was smaller and on the right ankle.

"So I talked to the doctor. We're both going to need physical therapy and when I told him about what we do and our schedules, he said he'd find a way so that we could do therapy together. Unless… you don't want to do it together." Morgan said.

Greg smiled. "Yes, I'd love to do physical therapy with you. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun yelling at me to work harder." Morgan grinned.

"Nick, D.B., Sara, Finn and my dad are all coming for a visit here in about an hour, you up for that?"

"I think so. I've been asleep for over twelve hours." Greg said, feeling energized despite the injuries.

"Ohh, can I sign your cast?" She asked, pointing at it. They found a nurse and asked for a permanent marker and Morgan signed his cast.

"What are you writing?" Greg wondered. She was signing the part of the cast that faced outwards and he would have to turn it upside down to read it when she was done.

"You'll see."

"It's nothing embarrassing, right?"

" _I_ don't think it's embarrassing. I don't know about _you_." Morgan replied.

"Morgan… what are you writing?" Greg asked, trying to sound stern.

She giggled and put the cap back on the marker. "Done!"

He turned the cast over and read it. It was a large heart with the words "Love My Greggo – Morgan." Greg felt his face turn red.

"I ought to sign your ankle." Greg said with a grin.

"I don't have a cast!"

"So, I could sign your leg anyway." He grabbed the marker and leaned forward like he was going to and Morgan tried to scoot away, laughing.

"What are you doing? Hey!" She said. He grabbed her upper leg and held it still to write on her ankle when a knock came at the door. They stopped and looked up to see everyone from the lab standing in the doorway.

"Are we interrupting?" Nick asked.

Greg smiled uncertainly, still holding onto Morgan's leg. Ecklie frowned at them from the doorway.

"No! Come in, I just signed Greg's cast and…he was going to sign my…err, leg." Morgan said, pressing her lips together to prevent herself from laughing. D.B., Finn, Sara, Nick and Ecklie all came into the room. Finn and Sara exchanged knowing smiles and Morgan saw them high five one another.

"I want to sign Greg's cast!" Finn exclaimed.

"Yes, me too." Sara agreed. After a round of everyone signing Greg's cast, even Ecklie, who stared at his daughter's message with his eyebrows raised, they sat around the room.

"I'm surprised they didn't put a cast on your leg. A broken femur takes a while to heal." D.B. said, pointing at Greg's brace.

"The doctor said it would heal faster this way and that I needed to maintain motion as much as possible. They're worried that the blood flow was cut off for too long, so they're trying this to make sure nothing's wrong with it." Greg said.

"But you're both feeling better?" Nick asked.

"Definitely. We're both going to have to go to physical therapy, though." Morgan said.

"Hey, no airports. Set off all the metal detectors." Greg said and Morgan grinned. Then a gleam came into her eye.

"Hey, now you really are a Nordic terminator!" She said brightly. Greg covered his face. He heard Russell laughing since he knew what it was in reference too.

"A what?" Ecklie asked and Morgan shrugged.

"Apparently a guy at the club he and Russell went too, the one with the people wearing rubber suits, the guy said he ran from Greg because he was a Nordic terminator scanning the room." Morgan replied. Nick grinned and gave Greg a pat on the back.

"Coming up in the world, aren't we Greg? You've gone from a lab rat to terminator!"


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you for all the continued support (and the nice PM from Sorrel2009!) This is the last chapter of the story, so I hope you enjoy! I'm going to be posting yet another story soon, but this one is going to be about how I think CSI should end for the CSIFO Challenge.**

Chapter 8

3 Weeks Later

Morgan had never been to Greg's apartment until after their accident. Since the both of them were out of commission for field work until further notice, Russell had been relying on them for paperwork for the lab. He even let them work from home on days when it was a little more than either one of them could bear or it was only paperwork and not sifting through and classifying evidence. Morgan had gotten into the habit of taking the bus too Greg's apartment so that they could keep each other company while working. She found that she liked being in his apartment more than her own because he kept everything neat and organized and it was actually quite stylish. She was impressed by his vinyl collection and old Vegas memorabilia displayed in cases.

Of _course_ some of those at home work sessions had ended with them getting distracted from their work by one another, but she didn't think Russell needed to know _that._ The work got done, so that was all that mattered. That night, though, they wouldn't be working. It was going to be their official first date and Morgan was nervous.

"So, keep this in mind. I planned this out knowing that the both of us don't exactly get around that well and all the other ideas I might have had for our first date had to be shelved for another time. For example, I don't think going to a carnival would be that fun, right?" Morgan said. Greg grinned and nodded in agreement.

"I bought some supplies and had them brought up earlier but I wouldn't let you look at them, so I'm going to go get them now." She said, propping herself up and grabbing one of her crutches. She'd gotten pretty good and hobbling around on just one of them.

"I could help." Greg said, pulling himself up and balancing on his leg. He'd been able to walk on it with the help of a cane for a week.

"No, I'm doing it!" Morgan insisted. Greg sighed and tried not to laugh. She disappeared into the kitchen and came back out with a six pack of beer, but each beer bottle was a different type.

"But wait…there's more!" She said, going back to get another one.

"You think we're going to drink all of this?" Greg asked.

"Sure, why not? We're both off of the antibiotics. The doctors said we're making good progress, so I think we should go for it." She said, setting the second six pack down. It also contained a different bottle of beer in each slot.

"So our first date is a drinking contest." Greg guessed.

"No… it's at home YouTube Karaoke Night!" She exclaimed. Greg's mouth opened in surprise and he couldn't contain his laughter.

"What? You said you'd have to be drunk to do karaoke, so I'm helping you. _Really_." Morgan said. Greg had a setup that allowed him to access YouTube from his flat screen television, so he brought it up and Morgan showed him all of the karaoke videos to choose from.

"We could even video tape it for posterity." She said excitedly, pulling out her new phone.

"I don't know about _video_." Greg said doubtfully. He wouldn't want Nick or Hodges to see him singing drunkenly for Morgan.

"I promise I would never show these to anyone. Cross my heart!" She said. "They would be just for us. Maybe to blackmail one another with when the other one is being particularly annoying." She smiled innocently.

"Maybe I'll change my mind when I'm drunk." Greg relented and Morgan cheered.

"I mean, c'mon, blackmail? That's a persuasive enough reason." Greg continued and Morgan patted him on the back, shuffling through choices.

"Let's create a playlist of random ones and we could take turns, or… for even more fun! We get to pick the other person's karaoke song." She said.

"Sure." Greg agreed. Morgan handed him the remote.

"I'll sing first, so you pick the song." She said. Greg immediately thought of one he thought Morgan might like and queued it up on the screen. He opened a beer and took a swig.

"Yes! I love this song!" Morgan said. She pushed play and from her position on the couch, she belted "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Greg grinned and took video as he drank his beer. Morgan was practically dancing while sitting down. She used the remote as a pretend microphone and Greg had to hold in his giggles so that the video wouldn't be ruined. When she finished he stopped the video and clapped. Morgan propped herself up and bowed awkwardly in his direction.

"Thank you!" She blew kisses at him and her imaginary audience. She sat down with a huge grin on her face.

"Now I get to pick one for you." Morgan said excitedly, selecting the next song to be queued up. Greg put his beer down and took the remote.

"You have to use it as a microphone." She insisted, opening her own beer and taking a drink.

"Of course I do." Greg said. He waited until the video loaded.

"Bohemian Rhapsody? That's a _long_ song." Greg exclaimed.

"I want to see if you can hit those high notes, Sanders. Go for it!" She clapped excitedly. Greg couldn't remember laughing this much on a first date or having this much fun at home. Greg sang as much of the song as he could. When he got to the high notes, he couldn't force his voice that high and ended up chugging the rest of his beer instead. Morgan filmed it and he could hear her giggling the whole time.

"C'mon!" She cheered, "Try again!" Greg tried again, of course, but his voice cracked and he gave up on the high notes.

"You know, this song seems depressing when you actually pay attention to the lyrics." Greg said at the end.

"Well…it is about Freddy Mercury being gay, isn't it?" Morgan asked. Greg nodded.

"I'm next, what song am I singing?" Morgan asked. Greg searched through the list they'd created.

"How about…something to remind you of a gift you once got for me?" Greg said, pulling up the song and handing Morgan the remote. He opened the next beer.

"These Boots Are Made for Walkin' by Nancy Sinatra. Perfect!" Morgan said. She belted it out and Greg was still amazed by the beauty of her singing voice. He filmed it, but it wasn't difficult to stay quiet because he was fascinated by her. When she finished, Greg almost forgot to turn off of the phone.

"You have such a beautiful singing voice." He said. Morgan sat next to him and smiled.

"I want to sing a duet with you and record it." Morgan said. Greg shook his head, insisting that he would ruin the song.

"No you won't! I want you to be in this song with me." Morgan insisted. She searched for a song she thought would be perfect for them to sing together. She queued it up and Greg stared.

"Summer Nights by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. From Grease?"

"Yes. Is that one okay or do you want to do another?"

"No, that's fine, but it is kind of sexist." Greg admitted. Morgan grinned.

"Sure it is, but it's a good duet song." They set it up and sang it together, laughing all the way through but only realizing at the end that they hadn't recorded it.

"Poo!" Morgan said, giggling. They had gone through several beers each already and they were both drunk. They both sat on the couch laughing.

"So, we can keep doing karaoke, or we can play a get to know each other game." Morgan said.

"I'll leave it up to you." Greg said, taking another sip of beer.

"Get to know you game!" She exclaimed. She turned YouTube off and brought out her phone.

"So there's this list of questions that this woman came up with. She says that working through them with someone will make you and that person more likely to fall in love. Do you want to test that theory?" She waggled the phone suggestively.

"Yes, I would. How many questions does it take to fall in love with someone?" Greg asked.

"Well, there are thirty-six on the list, but I figured we could go through them until we got bored and then we can do something else."

Greg nodded. "Hit me with the first one."

"Right, so the first question is, if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?"

"Dead or alive?"

"I suppose so. It says anyone." Morgan replied. Greg sat back and took another drink.

"Do you have an answer?" He asked her and she nodded.

"You go first."

Morgan took a drink first. "I would have dinner with my grandmother. She died when I was in high school and I never got a chance to go to her funeral and I regret it to this day. We were really close and she helped show me that being destructive as a high school student wasn't going to get me what I wanted. I love her and I miss her." She said. She sighed and took another drink.

Greg smiled sadly. "Mine's kind of sad, too. I think I would have dinner with Warrick Brown. He's the CSI that was killed about three years before you came to Vegas. He and Nick were best buds and the both of them were like the older brothers I never had growing up. They were tough on me all the time, but I'm a better person because of it. I just want to talk to him one more time to tell him how much we all miss him and how much his death sucked." Greg blinked away the tears that had begun to gather in his eyes and chugged the rest of his beer before grabbing another one. Morgan rubbed his arm.

"I'm sure he knows how much you all miss him, right?" She smiled comfortingly.

"I've…tried to contact him, you know." Greg said softly. Morgan stared at him silently. Greg hadn't really talked about the whole psychic thing since that case. Morgan was always curious and wanted to ask questions, but she didn't want Greg to feel as though she thought he was a freak, so she simply avoided it. Plus, it was difficult to find a reason to bring it up during the normal course of a case.

"How…does it work for you?" Morgan asked. Greg lifted his eyes to look at her. Sometimes, when Greg looked at her, Morgan felt as though he could see right through everything into the inner most corners of her brain. It gave her chills, but at the same time, she sensed his genuinely kind heart and knew that she could trust him.

"Sometimes, I get a feeling that I know isn't mine. I'll be irrationally angry, but nothing's happened to make me mad. Other times, I get a distinct smell that was associated with that person when they were alive. When that happens, I clear my head of thoughts and just let my mind be blank. Then….I hear them, sort of. They don't always _speak_ in the way you or I think of it. Sometimes I get images and feelings and a few words and I put it together as much as I can. Other times…I get very clear messages and they show me what they want someone to know."

"So, you don't see them?" She took a sip of beer.

"Sometimes. More when I was a kid and a teenager. They looked like…silhouettes or shadows. They would hang around just beside me, just within my peripheral vision. Most of the time." He started drinking the next beer. Morgan had put out some chips and dip earlier and Greg munched on several. They were silent for a while. Morgan wasn't sure if she should keep the conversation going in this direction because it had gotten serious when it was meant to be a learning experience.

 _I suppose it is a learning experience. I didn't know any of this before now._

"Most of the time?"

"I had a couple who would appear at the foot of my bed, clear as day. They looked like real people except…I don't know how to describe it. People who are living, me and you, have a kind of natural glow about them. I mean, I see that, I can see that glow. It's not actual light or anything it's just like this vibrant energy that seems to just be near you. Those spirits didn't have that, they had this dullness about them." Greg stared down at his bottle. Morgan couldn't even begin to imagine what Greg's childhood and adolescence had been like. She was moping about and being destructive because of her parent's marital woes and he was dealing with ghosts and the paranormal!

"So, you can still do it, right?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, it just… it takes a while. I'm out of practice, but I can still do it." Morgan didn't want to ask him to try anything. She was feeling quite intoxicated and she knew Greg was too because the more they talked about it, the more he drank.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up if you didn't want to talk about it." Morgan said, patting him on the shoulder. He reached out and put his hands on her face. Surprised she put her beer down.

"I've never talked to anyone about this before now. Not this much. The only other person who knows is my grandmother. My parents joke about it but they never really believed in it. I don't know why, but I get a really strong feeling that talking to you about it is good. That I'm doing what I should be doing." Morgan stared into Greg's eyes.

"Is it your feelings or the feelings of…something else?" Morgan whispered.

"I don't need a spirit to tell me that you're great. I know that on my own." Greg said quietly. Morgan leaned in and kissed him. They held each other as Greg pulled her deeper into the kiss. Morgan felt a tingling rush go up her spine to her mouth. Every time she and Greg kissed, it was like sending a jolt of electricity through her mouth.

Greg put his good arm around her waist and tried to pull her up onto him.

"OW!" They both stopped and stared at one another. Morgan grinned sheepishly and Greg laughed.

"You know… the day we get all these braces off… you just wait." Greg said.

"So does that mean our first date was a success? There are more dates in our future?" Morgan asked happily.

"Hmmm." Greg mumbled, kissing her again. That was answer enough for Morgan.

The End


End file.
